So how do you get a good offer?
1. If you don't have an Ancestry account you can subscribe online at ancestry.ca for a 27% discount. 2. If you call 1-800-958-9073 you can likely get a better offer, perhaps as much as the 50% discount.
3. Once you have a subscription immediately cancel automatic renewal. You don't want to be automatically renewed at full price.
If you're already a subscriber
4. Before your subscription expires you'll likely receive a renewal notice. Unless it offers a substantial discount ignore it. Once the subscription expires use the time to take a break and within a few days you'll likely receive an offer for renewal at a discount. A 30% discount is typical.
5. If you don't get an offer be patient. It will come. You may also get a better renewal offer if you attend an event where Ancestry is in the marketplace.
From a business perspective the marginal cost to Ancestry of serving an additional subscriber is minuscule. It costs Ancestry almost $100 to attract a new subscriber; much less to attract you to resubscribe and as a previous subscriber they know you're interested.
Here's a tip for those who've taken an AncestryDNA test but are not subscribers. When you get the email with your results scroll down and you should find a 50% discount offer.
Do you have other advice or experience? If so please share.
UPDATE
Thanks to those who commented about problems with cancelling automatic renewal. I'm going on the basis of the information at https://support.ancestry.com/s/article/Canceling-a-Subscription.
7 comments:
My advice is the same as yours. Let your subscription lapse, and then wait for them to offer you a deal. Two years ago, they offered me 40% off to renew about 2 weeks after my subscription ended. Last year, I waited 3 months and got a 50% discount. My subscription just ended so now I wait :-)
How do you cancel the automatic renewal? If it's possible to do so, Ancestry makes it very difficult to figure out how. A search on their help page (mis)leads you to the "cancel" page.
Unlike other subscription sites, I don’t believe you can cancel automatic renewal on Ancestry. I tried last year and was told that you have to phone them to do that. You can cancel your subscription online, but I presume it takes effect immediately. They do send a renewal notice and you can’t ignore it, or you will automatically be renewed. The only alternative is to remember to cancel at the last minute. I cancelled for several months last year, but was never offered a discount. I wonder if, among the “certain criteria” for you, is that you have a blog. I know of another blogger was also offered a discount as soon as she cancelled her subscription. I also gather that they are more likely to offer discounts to people who have done Ancestry DNA tests.
Thanks for the advice. Last year, after subscribing to the World Deluxe edition for more than 10 years non-stop, I called Ancestry to cancel one or two days before my subscription automatically renewed. Although I expected to wait a couple of months for a discount, I lucked out and received one within 48 hours. The discount appeared on my AncestryDNA page. I wondered if having both the World Deluxe subscription and results on AncestryDNA helped accelerate the discount offer. I don't think it had anything to do with me being a blogger.
I too cacelled my subscriptions before it renewed (it still is active until the original expiry date) but had to wait quite a while. Before Christmas I got a 50% off for 6 months offer but didn’t get around to doing anything about it. After Christmas, I got a 50% off for 1 year offer. So it doesn’t always pay to even take the first good offer!
Another way to save is to check out the exchange rate between US dollar, Canadian dollar and British pound. Although I’m in the states I save by buying through the British site. Even with the small exchange fee it’s worth it for me.
I cancelled my subscription a few days before the end date to take advantage of John's idea. The cancellation did not take effect until the actual day of expiry. I started to get a few issues of images not found about noon and finally about 4pm I was cut off from all the paid portions of Ancestry. I don't know what happens if you cancel with weeks to go but why would you?. Now I am waiting to get an offer and suffering withdrawal :-)
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